The Past Becomes The Present
by Bloodlustful
Summary: Tigress, despite her talent, beauty, fame and spirit, still has limits and a breaking point. Tai Lung reforming, joining the Jade Palace and having a crush on her won't test either of these, BUT WHAT WILL?
1. Chapter 1

THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT

The Kung Fu Panda fanfic you are about to read is as full of sad, frightening parts as it is of cool, romantic awesome parts, but it is meant as a story which has my favorite KFP cast member(Tigress)be the central focus, and which is meant to appeal to any and all Taigress fans. High octane action, love and feeling collide in this 5-chapter story I like to call "The Past Becomes The Present".

Note: With the exception of Cu Hun, my anthro buffalo assassin and sorcerer, I do not own any of the characters in this story. They all belong to Kung Fu Panda.

This story is rated "T" for frightening moments, almost as many sad moments, blood, intense scenes, language and violence.

Now for the story itself. Or at least the first chapter of it, anyway.

Chapter 1-The Sorcery Gem

It seemed that all loose ends were fully tied up and that the Peace Valley was once more truly at peace. A lot had taken place since Po's victory over Tai Lung. The Furious Five and Shifu had come to respect and like Po, Po had become a national hero and, in a huge surge of irony, the aforementioned Tai Lung had seen the error of his ways and, through a long series of events and deeds(too many to list here)redeemed himself both in truth and in the eyes of the Peace Valley, even the aforementioned Shifu, Furious Five and Po.

Shortly after redeeming himself, Tai Lung was offered a place in the Jade Palace as one of its heroic warriors again by Shifu after the latter negotiated with his students, and he accepted, this time becoming good for good. Mind you, he was still eyed suspiciously by some, especially Tigress, but he dealt with it and he knew it wouldn't be this way forever.

Needless to say, it truly seemed like order was restored and not a problem was left unsolved, and that things would go uphill from now on, with a whole new group of heroes in the Jade Palace and every villager and citizen of China finally feeling safe once more.

But not so. Why was that, you ask? Because a whole new problem was about to spawn from a whole new source, though said source was unknown of by everyone, the Jade Palace residents included. Now, you obviously want to know who or what was said source, so here's what it, or rather, he, was.

Inside of a dark, spooky, dungeon-resembling area in the far off, mountain covered regions of China, there was a diabolical sorcerer who went by the name of Cu Hun. Cu Hun was a buffalo, now, and he was a very smart, powerful, sadistic and cunning one, at that. He was brawny, tall and menacing in appearance, and he had big, long horns that were both of those things even by buffalo standards. His eyes were yellow with black pupils, and he had a thick mane around his neck and shoulders. He had hands and arms for forelegs, of course, but his legs and feet were those of a buffalo. He was an assassin as much as a sorcerer and which one he was depended what he was in the mood to be that day. Either way, he was serious bad news.

But today, he was a sorcerer. And he was, upon his powerful, muscular, burly, dark brown fur covered frame wearing a frightening black sorcerer suit which would make it so you'd be forgiven for thinking he was dressing up to try and be hired as a crypt-keeper. He had a pot in front of him where he was putting many ingredients to make some kind of evil potion in, and said potion was intended to create another thing entirely.

"Okay…" Cu Hun said in a snarl as he put the final required ingredients into the pot, "I almost have it. And when I do, I will make myself a brand new name in the history of sorcery. Why, if nothing else, I'll be given my own chapter in the long history book of evil sorcerers past, present and future. Just as soon as I put in this last drop…"

He put in a final drop of a special liquid and the pot began to boil like a tea kettle which had been left closed for too long and been on maximum heat, to the point of a great many bubbles. But when it simmered down, there was no more liquid, and in the pot was nothing but a gem. But this wasn't just any gem, it was exactly what he had hoped for. You will find out why right now.

"Yes, yes, yes!" he shouted, flashing a diabolical grin and revealing many sharp teeth, which, in contrast to most buffaloes, were the kind of teeth he had. "I have done it! The gem I wanted to make for what I intend to do has been completed! For…" He reached into the pot and took out the gem, clutching it in his fingers as he talked on. "…this gem I have created is capable of causing anyone it touches in any way to take on the abilities and/or weapons of literally anyone and anything in any entertainment media universe, be it video games, movies, comic books, novels, television shows or anything else! And it does so in a way so that said abilities keep changing and occurring in and out, and the victim cannot control them! Eventually, the overloading will cause the victim to lose his or her life, and prior to that, plenty will die and there will be even more destruction! What a perfect way for this sorcerer and assassin to conquer this damn country of China! I will start slow, and end in making sure so many lose their lives this way! And the best part is that I know just where the HELL to start, too!"

Indeed, he had the ideal target in mind. Tigress, of the Furious Five. Yes. You read right. He knew full well about many things of China just like everyone else, including Po, Shifu and the Furious Five, plus he'd heard of Tai Lung's recent redemption. But more to the point, he had Tigress in mind as the first victim of the manipulations of this new gem of his. He thought there could not be a better, more superb candidate to start this off with.

"After all," Cu Hun said, "Tigress is the most respected, well regarded member of the Furious Five, as well as their leader and its most powerful member. She also is the favorite member of nearly every citizen of China there is. She is Shifu's precious daughter. With Tai Lung's recent redemption, what's to say that he might not grow feelings for her, and that's if the panda doesn't! Not to mention how she's like a sister to the snake, breathtakingly hot and beautiful and so, so, so talented and admired! Her eagerness for battle makes it so that she would surely be one of the first to come and try to stop me if I was an assassin tomorrow and threatened the Peace Valley. So it will almost be like she comes right to me and my gem's power of destruction, power overload and life derailment/destruction. Thus, I will make her the first one I use this thing on, and from there, I will keep all of this shit up until at last, China is a downtrodden hellhole and I am its ruler for all eternity!"

It was a long while before the evil laughter that followed his statements faded, but eventually, it did, and now we cut to the Jade Palace, where the Tigress he meant to target the next day actually had a lot on her mind right now, all by herself in her room.

You see, right now, Tigress was feeling highly conflicted. She did not know how she felt, and was struggling with many feelings. One was her long dead parents, who she'd had the misfortune to lose to the spears of various assassins back when she was three. It was a horrible moment in her life which derailed her future, and it hurt all the more that part of what made them die was that they'd given their lives for her own. Right now, she was looking at the only thing she had to remember them by…a picture of them she was lucky enough to have kept with her since the time they died, up till now.

"Mother…father…" Tigress said softly and sadly while looking at the picture. "I wish I could have known you longer…wonder what you'd think of me. That is, if you saw what I've turned into now…or what I was when I was growing up in the Ba Gu Orphanage. To see how well your daughter turned out, or actually, on the contrary, that she at the same time grew up to be such a bitch…in a way, you guys were luckier than me."

Down in the first floor of the palace, the others were aware of why Tigress was not with them right now, but though they'd just let her be as they discussed other matters, it was now starting to worry Shifu.

"Tigress has never spent this much time away from us." he told his students. "I'm devoid of doubt something is upsetting her." "Maybe she still hasn't gotten over the fact Tai Lung's on our side now?" Monkey said humorously. "Very funny." Tai Lung said. "Let's get a little more serious than that, huh?" "I agree with Tai Lung." said Crane, the other top most mature member of the bunch aside from the snow leopard he was concurring with. "We're talking our leader being troubled and shutting herself away here."

"I know Tigress better than anyone here, and I know she would never do this if she didn't have a reason." Viper said. "And a damn understandable one, at that!" "Someone, I think, maybe should go talk to her?" Po asked. "Or at least try to find out what the hell is the problem?" added Mantis. "As a matter of fact," Shifu said, "I was just about to send one of us to do that. You, Tai Lung." "Me?" Tai Lung asked.

"Yes, that's what I said." Shifu responded. "But what if what's making her upset has something to do with me?" Tai Lung asked. "She just finished accepting that I was now a redeemed warrior and part of this palace once more. And I don't think she's one to forget things like our little 'playdate' on the bridge." "Be that as it may," Shifu said, "I have to tell these others something I needed to tell them today, but never got a chance to. And they'll need to know it first and foremost. So go comfort Tigress, if you can, and try to get her back down here so she can know as well, if she's up to it. Either way, I'll tell you the same as I'll now inform them once you're back down."

Tai Lung nodded and walked to the stairs, getting ready for any nasty violence he might be attacked by Tigress with. And Shifu and the others started talking now, but we will get to what Shifu had to tell them, and later, Tai Lung and Tigress, later on. Now we go back to Tigress being in her sad, unhappy, morose mood.

Tigress did not speak or take her eyes off the picture for a long minute. But she still thought of what she'd previously said while holding it. A tear came from her eye and she ignored it as she looked on at the picture. Then she finally talked again. "Yeah, your luck was, in a sense, much better than mine would turn out. After all, if I could bring you back, I would, for I loved you. Just as you loved me…and I missed you both so horribly as I grew up, being called a monster no one wants while an orphan. Even when Shifu adopted me when no one else would, I wished I'd known you longer. But I can do nothing but remember you." Suddenly, Tigress felt more tears brewing. "NO." she a second later said quietly but firmly. "I will not cry. It won't bring them back, and it would make me as much of a disgrace to kung fu as I once thought Po to be. I am forbidden to cry. Is this what my parents taught me all they could for? Is this what they sacrificed their lives for my own for? I am a femme fatale and a warrior, dammit! I protect those in need, not think about my own needs…!" After pausing for a bit and fighting back the tears, she said: "And mother? Father? I also don't know, and truly don't want to even think about, what you'd think of me if you knew I was starting to develop some sort of strange feeling for the last individual that you'd ever expect me to…"

Just then, she heard a knocking on her door. A swift feeling of shock went through her heart, but then she swiftly put the picture of her parents under the pillow. Then, after making sure there was no chance she might cry again, said calmly: "Come in."

And, much to her surprise, it was none other than Tai Lung! "Hello, Tigress." he said as she opened her eyes widely enough so they were almost the size of dinner plates. "Tai Lung?" she asked. "What the hell are you doing at my door?" "Shifu sent me up here for the fact he wanted me to see what was the matter with you. You've been apart from us all day, and he thinks something's eating you." Tai Lung explained.

"What makes him think that?" Tigress asked. "And why did he choose you to talk with me? Sure, you've redeemed yourself and everything, but maybe he would have first chosen someone who I was longer on the side of and closer to, like, say, Viper, Crane or Po?" "Tigress, you wouldn't be using that tone unless you were hurting." Tai Lung said. "I can tell…" "I'M NOT HURTING, DAMMIT!" Tigress blew up at him, but Tai Lung remained in a calm state and said: "You could have fooled me."

Ironically, Tigress was actually doing everything she could to hide what she'd been doing, AND to hide the fact that the one she was developing the aforementioned strange feelings for was, in fact, directly in front of her! Yes, ever since Tai Lung had redeemed his wrongs and joined the Jade Palace, Tigress had started seeing a different side to him, and part of her thought she liked it. More than liked it. NO! She would not think about that! And especially not to his spotty, gray fur-covered face!

"Seriously, Tai Lung, I assure you nothing is wrong!" insisted Tigress. "Honest to God truth! I'm as fine as anyone could be! Truly! Honestly!" Tai Lung walked on into her room, a second later sitting down next to her, and said: "Your tone says otherwise. Come on. Let's just talk. It's the only way you'll feel in any way better." Tai Lung realized, as he looked at her, that he was having some funny feelings about Tigress, now that they were comrades instead of adversaries. He didn't know it yet, but they were very similar to what Tigress had been feeling about him, and such a fact would be found out by both in the moments to come, albeit without any conclusions being jumped to or it being anything aside from simply interesting. AT BEST.

What this leads to, and what happens when Cu Hun makes his move, will be seen in the second of the five chapters! The plot thickens so immensely! Hope you liked this chapter and there will be more to come very soon! You can be sure of that!


	2. Chapter 2

THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT

Okay, I know you've just been aching to see how the Tai Lung/Tigress talk goes, so I'll get right to that! And then I'll get to everything which leads up to Cu Hun's attack, which I'm aware you've all been psyched to see!

I own no characters with the exception of Cu-Hun!

Chapter 2-Hot Love And Hard Luck

So we begin with how Tai Lung and Tigress were about to have their talk. Tigress, finally succumbing to the truth, said: "All right, I'll talk with you about what's eating me. But I swear to God, if you tell ANYONE what I'm about to tell you, ESPECIALLY Viper, Po or Shifu, I will rip off your balls and feed them to you! Understand?" "Yes," Tai Lung replied, a bit put off by a threat such as this which even Tigress wasn't usually wont to do, but he could tell this was that much of a hard spot for her, so he'd keep his promise. "Now, what's the matter, Tigress?"

Tigress sighed and began to tell him: "Right now, I'm in one of the most conflicted moods I've ever been in, not to mention one of the most sad. But I'm supposed to be neither of these. I'm the LEADER of the fucking FURIOUS FIVE, for crying out loud! But right now, I'm unable to help but feel how I do. I've been holding in my feelings in for so long, and, well, look at the picture." Tigress took it out from under her pillow for Tigress to look at. Tai Lung did, and he quickly realized who the strong, powerful looking, attractive male and female tigers in it holding a little girl tiger were. "This is about you parents, Tigress. You miss your parents, don't you?" he asked.

"OF COURSE I DO…" Tigress snarled, doing her best not to explode at Tai Lung, "…but it's much more than JUST that. Look directly at me. NOW." Tai Lung did so, and she said: "You see exactly what one would see if one looked at me. A bitch of a powerhouse who could shred nearly anything and someone not to be screwed with. A monster, when you think about it. Just like I was called back at the Ba Gu Orphanage. What would my parents think of me if they were still around and knew what I'd become?" "You're a heroine, Tigress." Tai Lung told her. "Maybe a hard, dark heroine, but you're still important to the innocent. If all of China, including the ones with the most to hate me for, can accept the fact I've redeemed myself and am part of this group now, plus forgive me, how the hell would YOUR OWN PARENTS be unable to look past your more intimidating aspects and still love you had they survived?"

"Yes, I can see what you mean, Tai Lung." Tigress replied. "Oh, and just in case you're wondering, no. My parents did not die because of your rampage back when you were a lunatic and engine of destruction. They were killed by various assassins, so don't think I'm an orphan thanks to you." "Oh, good to know, at least that I didn't kill them." Tai Lung said. Tigress nodded and told him: "Anyway, like I was saying, although what you just said is a good point, the problem is that, think of how shocked they would be if they'd saw all I'd gone through and become! Think of how they'd be so horrified to see their daughter had grown up in a far different way than they'd planned for her, and with so much less love! Think about how saddened they'd be to see how I'd grown up and lived, especially after they sacrificed their lives for my own as a final act of their unbreakable love for me! AND I REPAY THEM BY GOING A FAR DISTANCE FROM LIVING UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS?"

Tai Lung hugged Tigress as she could not help but burst into tears, and said softly after a bit: "Tigress, your parents loved you for being you. They did not make their love for you depend on whether or not you lived up to their expectations. If you mattered to them that little, would they have given their lives to make sure yours was safe?" Tigress, recovering from her sudden burst of tears, said: "God…I hadn't thought of that…I guess I was too caught up in my own grief…" "It's all right. We have moments like this. God knows I took long to recover from what I turned into prior to redemption once I joined this Palace once more. But I recovered, and so can you."

Tigress nodded, but Tai Lung's comfort wasn't the only reason she was feeling different than she had before. She placed the picture under her pillow again, but barely paid any attention to doing that. You see, one reason she felt different was how Tai Lung had helped her calm down and feel better about what her parents would think of her. But another went much, much deeper, and it was picked up when Tai Lung had hugged her, held her close, as she heard his heart beat and felt his warm fur. It was a feeling of allure which she didn't want to believe to be what she knew it was. Still, she kept this sensation of a unique feeling and emotion to herself.

And, unbeknownst to her, when Tai Lung had not just hugged her, but also was talking to her, he felt something strange yet pleasurable as well. It was a new warmth he'd never felt even back when he was a cub and being loved by Shifu and vice versa, who ironically he now was with again and, for the most part, loved once more and vice versa. But even so, it could not match the feeling he had when he embraced Tigress. He didn't think too hard on it, though, because now was not the time to do so, or so he felt and believed. In any case, he didn't know Tigress felt the same way he did right now, and he knew Shifu would be waiting for them, so he quickly told her what he'd need to now that she was more in the mood to be herself again.

"I should tell you this quickly, by the way, though I'm sorry if it feels sudden." he spoke. "What?" Tigress asked. "Shifu is waiting for the two of us. He wanted to tell something important to us all, but he sent me to speak with you since the other guys would have to know it first. But once I'd helped you enough, we'd both have to come down and hear it as well. I know not what it is, but considering he called it important, it must be crucial, and, chances are, have to do with something we're required to do." Tigress said: "Really? Well, we'd better get going, then. I'm glad you made sure that I'd calmed down enough to tell me, though, since it might have led to all sorts of complications if it had been otherwise."

Tai Lung nodded and the two got up and walked out the door of Tigress's room, going down the stairs next to meet with Shifu, Po and the rest of the Furious Five down there. "Oh, and Tigress," said Tai Lung, "I trust you are feeling better, then?" "Yes, somewhat. Thank you. This has helped to the extent it can…" Tigress replied. "Believe me, Tigress, your parents would still love you now, and if you continue to be the heroine you are, their love for you will not only endure, but, if anything, go up as they watch you from the heavens." Tigress smiled a little and said: "Thank you. That means a lot to me, Tai Lung." "Of course." Tai Lung responded. By this time, they had reached the end of the stairs.

Shifu, noticing them said, "Ah, Tai Lung, Tigress. I am glad you have come down now, for I have been waiting for a bit after telling these others the important news. And Tigress, I see you are feeling better. I am even gladder about that. Well done, Tai Lung." Both nodded and Tigress asked: "By the way, Master Shifu, what is the important thing you told the others and now mean to tell Tai Lung and myself?"

Po, being Po, couldn't help but give it away just now, since it sounded so exciting and cool to him. "I'll tell you! Master Shifu won't need to bother!" Shifu rolled his eyes and put his hand over his face, knowing there was no stopping him now. "You see," Po said, "he'd earlier today gotten a notice from a messenger bird. Said notice, once he had a chance to read it, told of a powerful sorcerer and/or assassin buffalo warrior was on his way here, intent on attacking Peace Valley! Apparently going by the name of Cu-Hun! This guy's got a whole lot of raw power, size, magic spells and fighting skills on his side, and some kind of freaky crystal which does God knows what! He's got a lot of assassin grunts with him, who he earlier today won the loyalty of through charisma and intimidation, plus showed his hideout to, wherever it is, and we're all needed...me, Tai Lung, all of the Furious Five, to take him down! He's that big and that powerful! Not to mention that evil, smart and ruthless! Won't this be cool? A whole new villain to fight, and arguably the worst, most powerful one yet!"

"Thank you for telling the whole damn thing in one go, Po." Crane said. "So, anyhow, we need to take off. Like, NOW!" "And I will lead you to where Cu-Hun is." Shifu told them. "I can hear him coming right now. He is almost at Peace Valley. We need to hurry before he can do any damage at all." The others nodded, and Shifu led all of the Furious Five, Tai Lung and Po out the door. It did not take them long to spot where Cu-Hun and his many assassins were, due to his size and how many helpers he had, and once they reached him, he soon enough saw them coming, too.

"Hmmm?" he said. "What it is, fearless leader?" asked one assassin. "I see the Furious Five, Tai Lung, Po and Shifu coming right for us! Oh, lord! This couldn't get any better!" "Yeah, I bet this'll make your plan work like a dream!" another assassin told him. "Yes, but I need the lot of you to keep the others occupied while I deal with Po, Tai Lung and, of course, Tigress!" Cu-Hun said. "With pleasure, boss!" a third assassin spoke. They all charged at the eight warriors coming for them, and Shifu said: "All right, my students. Let us prepare for battle. Tigress, Tai Lung, Po! Help me deal with Cu-Hun! The rest of you, take these assassins! And once they're down, aid Po, Tai Lung, Tigress and myself! Hurry! Every second counts!" Everyone nodded, and Shifu took off with Tigress, Po and Tai Lung flanking him, all four of them meaning to take down Cu-Hun.

Meanwhile, Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis were beautifully taking down several of Cu-Hun's loyal assassins, and pretty easily, at that. "How Cu-Hun saw potential in you guys, I'll never know!" Monkey said while he kicked one of them down. "I'm betting that being a bunch of assassins like you is for the birds!" commented Mantis while he leapt upon one and battered him senseless. "Watch that mouth, Mantis!" Crane said as he used both of his wings to hit two assassins, one to each side of him. "I don't think he meant it like that, Crane!" Viper pointed out while she literally whipped the assassins she was fighting into submission.

While Cu-Hun saw his own four foes coming at him, he said: "Just perfect! You four are exactly the ones I was hoping would come for me instead of my assassins!" "Well, you got your wish, but you're gonna be wishing you were careful about what you wished for in a few seconds, Cu-Hun!" Po said as trash talk. "Focus, Po! This is no time to get cocky!" Tai Lung reminded. Cu-Hun prepared to fight, but some of his assassins had noticed that the four were coming for him and foolishly decided to try and wear them down, instead of letting him deal with them. So they went right for them.

Cu-Hun noticed and said: "NO! I can handle them all and this is what I want! Go back to dealing with the other four! I command you!" But Tigress, Shifu, Po and Tai Lung had also noticed and swiftly dispatched these attacking assassins with blows of foot, fist, stick, nerve strike, belly and head, how much of each varying or being nonexistent depending on who was doing what. In any case, all four of them took down a very large clutch of these assassins on their own, and in the end, none of them were still standing. "Too late, Cu-Hun!" Tigress said with much bravado as the four turned back to facing him.

"Damn those fools!" Cu-Hun said. "But it matters not, for I have the four of you right where I want you! Especially you, Tigress!" "ME?" Tigress asked, a bit surprised. "What the hell makes you so interested in me?" "Let's ask him after he's a broken pile of bleeding flesh!" Tai Lung suggested. "Works for me!" Tigress replied. So the four of them leapt right at Cu-Hun, attacking him at every angle they could. Tigress landed numerous hits on Cu-Hun with her fists and feet, and Tai Lung did much the same, plus clawed him some. Po hit him with belly, fists and feet, and also made his ass come down on his head if he could, and Shifu used his stick, his punches and his kicks to damage Cu-Hun.

But Cu-Hun fought back. Casting a blinding spell while saying: "You fight well, all four of you, I must admit. But let's see if you can still fight so powerfully if you don't have your eyes!" Shifu, Tigress, Po and Tai Lung were horribly blinded, and all went: "AAAAAAAAA!" in unison. They fell to the ground, albeit on their feet, while covering their eyes due to the stinging pain of the blinding spell, and Cu-Hun, ignoring the agony inflicted on him by the damage the blows of his opponents dealt and the fact he was also bleeding from such huge amounts of punishment, said: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! I knew it! Now to tilt the odds more in my favor!"

Po went first, as Cu-Hun kicked him extremely hard and then punched him powerfully enough to send him sailing across the area, almost right into his comrades who were still fighting the other assassins. Although Po was not knocked out or killed, he was paralyzed enough so he could not get up. And had a horrible nosebleed, plus his body seemed to be bleeding on the inside from the impact.

"One down, three to go!" Cu-Hun proclaimed, and he took out one of the many weapons he'd taken for his trip to the Peace Valley as an assassin on this day, a long staff with a blade at each end. Said staff would be used on Tai Lung, who he swung it at to slash open the back of. "E-!" Tai Lung screamed as blood flew from his back and the pain of the slash enveloped him. "If you think that was painful, wait until you see THIS, spots!" Cu-Hun laughed as he whacked Tai Lung with the staff itself so he would be facing him, then slashed him across the front. Tai Lung yowled, and more blood spilled, Cu-Hun saying: "I must say, feline, you're such a CUT-UP! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Tai Lung fell to the ground, and though his wounds were not fatal, he had clearly been put out of the fight. Especially when his blood started to soak the dirt. Shifu was next in line, since Cu-Hun had something special in mind for Tigress having to do with a certain gem of his, which he'd brought along for this attack. "So, you trained your students so well as this, did you, Shifu?" asked Cu-Hun. "Well, with all your wisdom and knowledge, here's what I say…THINK YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS ONE, SHORT STUFF!" He put away his staff and took out another weapon, his spiked club, and brought it down on Shifu, the damage being enough to not kill or even knock him unconscious, but enough to put him out of any sort of action instantaneously. "You just got nailed by me in a horrifying way like nothing else, and since many have had that happen to them, I say JOIN THE CLUB! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

In the time it had taken him to do all this and put away his club, though, Tigress had been able to recover from the blinding spell(said spell Cu-Hun designed to be only temporary)and regain her sight. Seeing the incapacitated Po, Tai Lung and Shifu in front of her, Tigress at once knew what had happened. She spun around and yelled: "YOU DID THIS, CU-HUN!" He grinned cruelly: "You bet your ass I did, bitch! It's your turn now, although I probably should mention I've got something a little more…SPECIAL…in mind for you! After all, you are the one this attack was all about!"

"What?" Tigress snapped. "This is all about me? I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, you big monstrosity, but right now, I'm only interested in beating your ass to a pulp like you have coming to you!" "You can try, Tigress, but I assure you it will be a far different result than you expect." Cu-Hun replied as he reached for his crystal. "Like hell!" roared out Tigress as she leapt in and kicked Cu-Hun in the gut. "UUUULLLLLLLFFFFFF!" he said, then tried to punch her, but she flipped back and kicked him in the chin. "OOOOOWWWW!" he yelled, then said: "You hit hard, I'll give you that. And I'm not surprised you've got the sort of reputation you do. But all that and fifty awards won't do shit to save you from the fate I've got planned for you!"

"Words which are as empty as your mind must be if you think I'm going to believe that crap!" Tigress retorted as she leapt back in, dodged a kick from him and landed two hard punches before kicking him once more. Unfortunately, things went downhill for her from this moment, because Cu-Hun picked her up and performed a bear-hug grip. "This ends now, Tigress!" he said. "This is where I subdue you and give you what I came here to give you!" As Tigress felt her spine and ribs caving in, she thought: "No…he's crushing me…" She did all she could to get free, but to no avail. Cu-Hun told her: "I could easily snap you in two like a dead twig right now, with the position I have you in. Lucky for you, I need you alive for what is to come!"

With that, he dropped Tigress and let her land on her feet, Tigress woozy and dazed from the bear hug, and unable to see anything but a horrible blur. This was when Cu-Hun chose to strike. Holding his crystal firmly in a perfect position, he said: "Your fate is at hand, feline femme fatale!" With a powerful swing, he made a hard, painful mark on Tigress's belly as he tagged her midriff with the crystal's sharp end, even tearing open her shirt and drawing some blood, though nowhere near as much as he'd drawn attacking Tai Lung. Still, a loud scream escaped Tigress, who was quickly alerted to the agony.

Cu-Hun thundered: "YES! I'VE DONE IT! MY MISSION WAS A FUCKING SUCCESS!" He called to those of his assassins who had not been taken down by Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis yet: "MY ASSASSINS! IT IS OVER! I HAVE DONE IT, AND IT IS NOW TIME TO RETREAT!" He cast a force spell which he unleashed upon the four Furious Five member and made sure hit them so they were all knocked to the sides, away from his assassins. "That's an order! COME!" The assassins, ever loyal to Cu-Hun, obeyed and took off, glad to no longer be at risk of getting thrashed anyhow. Cu-Hun and all his assassins disappeared from sight after he cast a teleportation spell which returned them to his hideout.

Just then, Crane, Viper, Mantis and Monkey got up, and Shifu, Po and Tai Lung had at the very least recovered from their injuries enough to stand, move and talk, though none of them could fight again yet. But none of these seven were thinking about any of that, for they noticed the injured Tigress, who had fallen to her hands and knees clutching her belly.

OOOOOOOH, suspense, suspense! How will this turn out? What will happen to Tigress? How will the others deal with it, especially while some of them recover? And what else might Cu-Hun plot to do? Find out in the next chapter, and please rate and review this one!


	3. Chapter 3

THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT

All right, it's time for Chapter 3 and what happens to Tigress now that she's been scratched with the crystal, not to mention how the others injured by Cu-Hun recover, plus how Tigress and her condition will be dealt with! Y'all have been psyched for this, so I'll be certain to make it live up to your expectations!

Cu-Hun is the only character I own! All others belong to Dreamworks and Kung Fu Panda!

Chapter 3-Too Much Power Wrecks One's Life

The kung-fu heroes were back in the Jade Palace, plus those who needed it had been treated by doctors that Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis had gotten once everyone returned there, and although Peace Valley was thankful to them for stopping Cu-Hun and his assassins from inflicting any damage, they had too much keeping them occupied to think about much of that right now.

And for understandable reasons. Not only were Tai Lung, Po and Shifu alike in a lot of pain while they recovered from their injuries, even with their bloody wounds bandaged up, requiring Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis to help them, Tigress was even worse off, for not only did she have all of the above problems, she appeared to have something else going on, as well. Her midsection was bandaged up, too, but she was still in a great deal of pain.

"UUUUGH, I can't believe we took this much damage even working together!" Tigress snarled. "We're supposed to be master kung fu warriors, for God's sake!" "Hey, Cu-Hun was a hell of a powerhouse! Even my nerve strikes couldn't fell him without assistance!" Tai Lung pointed out. "And the good thing is we at least managed to stop him, however harsh a cost it came at!" Po stated. "Not to mention that the wounds we took have been treated and are bandaged! So no need to feel angry, Tigress!"

"They have a good point, you know, Tigress." Viper told her bigger, tougher, hotter femme fatale comrade. "I understand that, and see what you're all saying." Tigress said. "Still, I'm not used to this kind of thing happening in battle with any foes." "None of us are, but we can adjust, and it was not for nothing." Shifu told her. "Although, I'm not sure whether or not Cu-Hun will try this shit again." Crane said. "If he does, however dire the consequence, we'll have to attack him once more and make sure he stays defeated." "Of course we will." Tigress said, "and I'm not denying that. It's just…the pain my guts are being racked with makes it hard to cope with this, that's all."

She thought to herself: "Not to mention the emotional pain racking me in my heart. I really wanted, prior to the fight, to tell Tai Lung how much I'm starting to love him, but now would be the worst possible time." Tai Lung was thinking: "I wish I could tell Tigress I'm loving her more and more, but right now, the way she feels physically and emotionally, even I know better than to take such a risk!" at the same time, appropriately enough.

"Fair enough, but we'll get through this like we would anything else." Mantis told her. "Is your belly feeling any better after a bit of this recovering, Tigress? I mean, at least remotely or slightly?" "No, and I'd be insane to expect it would." Tigress said. "Why the hell did he slash me with that crystal and just take off, anyway? And more to the point, why would he want to do it with me? Why does he think I'm so special, and what does that gem even do?"

"Hey, damned if I know any more than you or the rest of these guys do!" Po told her. "But since you're still alive, I don't think it can be anything deadly or fatal." But no sooner did Po say this than did Tigress start to feel worse pain in her entrails than before. So much, in fact, that she fell to her knees. "AAAAAAGGHHH!" she said, clutching her stomach. All of her friends came over and Shifu said: "Tigress! What has happened? Is the wound bleeding more?" "No…" Tigress said. "It's different than that…I don't think I can even tell…"

But then it happened. The effects of the crystal from Cu-Hun started. Everyone, but especially Tai Lung, was horrified for Tigress's safety, but became equally startled when Tigress's arms and legs began to turn to metal and long, adamantium claws came out of her fingers in the place of her regular claws. Tigress screamed as she stood up, but then, in a sequence she was unable to control, began spinning about and slashing up everything she could reach. "TIGRESS? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Po shouted, but then she felt another change about to occur. "E-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Tigress shouted in her agony.

Among the things she'd sliced up she stood as the claws and metal arms disappeared and she leapt up onto a wall…which she was sticking to! "What in the name of God?" she said. "I'm sticking to a wall? But I can't do that!" She tried to run off it, but she was crawling across it and up the ceiling. "Tigress, what is happening to you?" Shifu exclaimed. "She needs medical attention fast, and urgently so!" Tai Lung said. "Whatever this is, it could place her life in danger along with the rest of Peace Valley! I fear for her greatly!" "He's right, Tigress!" Crane said. "Come down from there!" Po called.

"I can't!" Tigress said. "You think I don't want to? My paws won't come off! I've been trying to get off for the whole time I've been on! NO!" Webbing suddenly fired out of her wrists and splattered into the faces of her comrades, as well as tying them up. "NO!" she let out. "Sorry, I did not mean to do that! I can't control any of this! It just keeps coming!" She all of a sudden felt an intense blaring in the back of her head. She was in danger, and this was her spider-sense. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she howled.

"Uck, she may not have meant it," Monkey said, "and I do want to help her like the rest of you, but how the hell do we get this crap off of us?" "And how did she manage to shoot webs of all things?" asked Po. "She's a tiger, not a spider!" Just then, Tigress jumped down from the wall, finally free from it, but as soon as she landed on her feet(like all cats do), a new change came her way. She said: "Guys, get free of that webbing now! I feel another one coming, and I can't stop it! E-RAAAAAAAAAAIEEEEEEE!" Sure enough, Tigress all of a sudden felt something sharp and painful coming out of her hand, and though she also shot hellfire from her other paw which hit the webbing on her friends, thus freeing them and turning it into ash around their feet, things actually got worse for her, in a way.

Why? Because she fired out what emerged painfully from her right paw, which was a long spear point on a rope, and it slung all the way out to snare Tai Lung, hitting him in the shoulder, making him go: "OWWWWCCCHHH! Tigress, what is this?" and even causing him to bleed. "Sorry!" Tigress exclaimed at once. "I did not mean to…" But then she, unable to control it, pulled Tai Lung over to where she was with the spear and yelled: "GET OVER HERE, TAI LUNG!" Amazingly, she then lost the spear and hellfire completely, then started to grow little plants all over her body. Her fur also started to turn green, though she retained her stripes, and she then kissed Tai Lung powerfully on the lips, much to his alarm.

"MMMMMMPPPPPHHHFFFF!" he went. He felt so seduced all of a sudden, and went around flirting and feeling blushed and secure, pheromones galore holding him under Tigress's kiss. But Tigress then started to shoot vines out of her body. Spiky vines which smacked at Po without her able to control them. "Po, I'm sorry!" she managed to scream out, while Po went: "OOOOWWWW! I know you can't control this and don't want it, Tigress, but damn, this hurts! Thorns! Prickly, nasty thorns on strong vines! WHOOOAAAAA!" He got wrapped up in the vines, but just then, this sequence ended in Tigress, who was practically messed up by now.

"Tigress, we have to get you to a hospital right this instant!" Shifu told her. "There is no time to lose! Whatever your condition…" But then Tigress's head started to glow with telekinetic energy, which flew out to knock about everyone but Po and Tai Lung. She screamed: "I DID NOT WANT THAT! AND OF COURSE I NEED A DOCTOR! BUT HOW CAN I STAY NORMAL LONG ENOUGH TO EVEN…?" Her sentence was cut off when spider leg machine guns grew out of her arms and three foot-long adamantium claws grew out of each of her hands. "HEEEELLLLLLLPPPP!" she cried as the legs uncontrollably fired bullets everywhere in the Jade Palace floor they were on and she also was unable to stop a feral rage from making her adamantium claws slash up everything in sight. "MAKE IT STOP!" she wailed as she uncontrollably was going about and causing this destruction. But even though her friends had ducked down under this line of fire, things got even worse now.

Why? Because Tigress was suddenly turning invisible, and Mantis asked: "Hey, where the hell did she go?" "She was here up until now!" Viper said. "She can't have just vanished, can she?" But Tigress reappeared and screeched: "LOOK OUT!" as various blasts of invisible force went right for Viper and Mantis, knocking them both into a wall. "OWWWWWWW!" they said in unison. "What hit us?" asked Viper. "Nothing we saw!" Mantis told her. And as if this weren't horrible enough, Tigress now began to feel lightning forming in her upper body as well as wind, not to mention the ability to fly forming in her whole body.

"NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" she howled, but it was, and she was carried up into the air on these winds that suddenly formed around her lower body, right before lightning blasts came out of her hands and blew open the roof, which she then could not stop herself from flying out of. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she yowled as she flew out into the air and out towards where the moon was(it was nighttime by this point). "Hey, she's just flown out the roof! We have to follow her!" exclaimed Po. "Of course we do!" Shifu said. "If we don't, she, along with the rest of Peace Valley, is doomed!" "Tell me we'll reach her in time!" Tai Lung yelled as they all took off out the huge opening left by the bolts of lightning Tigress let loose. They made sure not to lose track of her, mostly relying on Tai Lung's super-sharp snout to do this.

Out in Peace Valley, villagers were just enjoying the seemingly serene night until it seemed like it was starting to rain. "Huh?" said a rhino. "Rain? I don't understand…" But then it came down much harder and lightning also flashed across the night sky. "Oh, no. We have to get back in our homes…" a pig began, but then they all saw Tigress up in the air and the lightning and tornadoes that were coming from her following this thunderstorm. "Is that Tigress of the Furious Five?" asked a buffalo. "It looks like it, but since when can she control the weather?" asked a mountain cat. "And why would she want to do this to us?" asked a rabbit. "She's a heroine!" "RUN!" they all suddenly heard Tigress scream. "NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! I CAN'T CONTROL THIS! GET OUT OF HERE!" "I think we should listen to her! I don't think she's kidding!" suggested a snake. "Hey, I believe her, and I think the rest of us do! Let's move it!" a bird shouted. They all ran, but it was just in time, for now Tigress let loose two tornadoes which ripped the village apart.

"WHAT HAVE I DONE?" Tigress thundered(pun intended), but then her weather powers left her and, though, she could still fly, she did so to another part of the valley, even though it was obviously against her will. "WHAT NOW?" she roared. It was soon answered. She began unleashing powerful blasts of ice, snow, sleet and cold from her entire body, and she froze the next region of the valley over into a solid tundra blanketed in snow and ice. It was far from cool as far as she was concerned, though. "NOT THIS! THIS IS WORSE! HELP ME! ANYONE!" she cried out to the sky, albeit in vain, very tragically.

Meanwhile, while the others were trying to keep up with her, Shifu told them: "Wait! I think I have an idea of what is making this happen! Listen while we run to keep up with her!" "Okay, we're all ears!" everyone said in unison. "Cu-Hun said he was going to slash her with that crystal for a special reason, or at least that's what he was trying to tell her when he told her she was his pick! And though we didn't know the effects of his crystal then, it's doubtless we should now! That crystal causes whoever it victimizes to take on various powers from various media characters!" "And if it happens as much as it looks to be happening and we should expect it to keep happening, then it will eventually be too much and…" Tai Lung began, but then he gasped at the horrible thought of Tigress being killed.

"We have to find her, get her under control and find a way to cure her FAST!" Shifu yelled, and everyone tried to push their efforts to find Tigress even further, if that was possible to do. As for Tigress, she was now still flying around the Peace Valley, but this time, she was shooting heat ray vision out of her eyes, freeze breath out of her mouth and also doing speed blitzes in which she smashed everything in sight to fine dust. "NO!" she cried out. "STOP IT, STOP IT! SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP! SORRY!" Everyone who barely managed to not be scathed by this looked up to her and soon fainted from confusion and fright.

Although Tigress suddenly appeared to lose her ability to fly, this was not stopping one bit. For she then grew two horns and lightning started shooting out of them. "WHAT IS THIS?" she exclaimed. "SAVE ME!" She normally was nothing like this, or even close to being a bit scared or berserk, but this was far too much for even someone as tough, brave, smart and disciplined as herself. The lightning turned many things around her to ash, and then a diamond storm of sorts shot out of one hand, while a magic lasso flew out of her other hand and green eye beams came from her ruby red eyes, the first and third destroying many structures and objects, and the lasso snaring quite a few villagers and tossing them all around. "I DON'T MEAN TO DO ANY OF THIS! I CAN'T STOP! TELL ME THIS ISN'T GOING TO LAST!" Tigress roared in desperation.

But all of a sudden, her fur turned blue, though her stripes, again, stayed, then her tail turned into a devil's tail and she began teleporting everywhere, plus once this was done her body turned back to its normal form, but it was followed by her flesh turning to organic steel and her bringing herself down onto the ground, knocking everyone over and causing several things to either break apart or collapse. "E-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she yelled.

As if everything just got worse than everything before, now she started to shake up the ground and cause a huge earthquake with her hands, then she began stretching her limbs and body out all over the place, then after that she broke through quite a lot and flipped to another part of Peace Valley, followed by her developing light speed and dashing all around the area before beating things to bits with that light speed and finally growing a giant red and gold armor suit from her clothes, which covered her from head to toe. She flew up in the air and fired many ray blasts of energy from her hands, yelling in a robotic version of her voice from inside the metal mask: "IS THERE A CURE FOR THIS? I NEVER WANTED IT AT ALL! HELP ME! MERCY! PLEASE, GOD! DO SOMETHING!"

Though the suit left her, her prayer was actually not answered, for she now grew two devil wings, a devil tail and unleashed a gigantic force of energy which blew up an entire forest in front of her. "NOOOOOOO!" she screamed. "THAT WAS THE FOREST I WAS IN WITH MY PARENTS THE DAY THEY DIED AND THE LAST PLACE I EVER SAW THEM IN! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! IT'S NOT! THIS HAS TO BE A NIGHTMARE!" But she knew full well this was nothing short of reality, which had become hell on Earth for her. Unable to stop herself from screaming, she suddenly let loose a sonic scream, a "Canary Cry" of sorts which began to hit thing after thing, each time being more destructive than the last. Villagers were of course fleeing, and so were any visitors.

Her wing suddenly became feathered ones and her tail turned back to normal, but she also developed an electric mace of Nth metal in her right hand, which she began swinging around as she flew about and began beating to pieces whatever she could as she reached another area of peace valley. Soon enough, the wings disappeared and her mace turned to a mallet, which she was unable to keep herself from holding up and unleashing lots of lightning on the region she was in with, right before she flew down and smashed the ground with the hammer, practically felling everything and everyone present one way or the other.

Tigress couldn't take this, but it was not going to stop. Not until she was overloaded and killed. Or at least it seemed to be this way right now. In any case, the villagers who had barely survived and were frozen with fear were unable to do anything but watch as her hammer disappeared, she suddenly saw a red lightsaber form in her left hand, and she then was not able to prevent sticking out her right one and using a force choke on everyone there. "NO! THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT! LET GO OF THEM!" she yelled, in vain. But then she landed on the ground and started to slice at everything around her, though her choke hold was broken and the villagers took off, with her new red lightsaber. But afterwards, she lost the lightsaber and the force choke ability, only to turn into living water and start to flood all around the region of the Peace Valley she was in.

Just then, Shifu, Tai Lung, Po, Mantis, Crane, Viper and Monkey caught up to where she was, and, seeing the water, it didn't take a second guess, with how it was flowing out of control, to know where Tigress was, what had happened to her and where she'd go. "There she is!" Po said. "We have to keep running and make sure we don't lose sight of that water!" "I'll say we do!" Viper said. "We're the only hope she or anyone else has!" "So less talking and more running!" Tai Lung pointed out as they were going as fast as they could anyway.

After five seconds of being water and flooding, drenching and pouring all over everywhere, Tigress turned back to normal, only for sickly green magical energy to start flying from her fingers. "NOT AGAIN!" Tigress cried as it flew up into the air and formed a frightening skull of a green specter in the darker than ever night sky. Everyone in this part of the Peace Valley saw what was going on, and backed away slowly in fright, though all wished they could do something to help poor Tigress. But they all knew none of them could, most especially since they didn't even know what was causing her to do this, and thus knew their only choice was to make sure not to get caught in the crossfire.

Worse yet, when the magic vanished, Tigress felt something else coming on, and it struck extremely fast. It was a black and white symbiote which formed all over her body, and a green power ring which formed on her right index finger.

TO BE CONTINUED…

WHOA, pretty intense chapter, huh? And it intensifies further when the next chapter, which is also part of the climax(though not quite the whole thing)is posted. Whenever I can do so, I will do so. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of this gripping one with reviews, please!


	4. Chapter 4

THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT

Eager for this chapter I know you've all been, and now will be presented with it! It's the most intense chapter of the fic, mind you, and that's saying a lot! So, anyhow, here we are! Chapter 4 of this five chapter fanfic! It may not be the conclusion or the whole climax, but its powerfulness will more than fill those empty slots along with utterly knock you dead! So let's get on with it without further ado, shall we?

I own not a single one of the characters except for Cu-Hun. All others belong to Kung Fu Panda/Dreamworks Studios!

The story continues from where it last left off!

Chapter 4-The Final Rise And Fall Of Pure Evil!

Beginning this chapter, we look into the dungeon lair of Cu-Hun first, where he and his remaining assassins currently were. They had been in here for a while, and they had been talking about when to mount their next assault. Specifically, at what point of Tigress and the developing of her cruel crystal created condition. After much discussing, they at last reached a conclusion.

"As you know," Cu-Hun said, "those of you who are still here did a marvelous job in your assistance to me. Furthermore, what we set out to do was an utter success. Which means that you deserve rewards galore for such loyalty, hard work and bravery. As such, we will make sure to attack just as Tigress is in the last stage of her condition, as well as her life, and thus destroy the others with maximum agony caused to them, and maximum fear struck into the villagers, thus insuring we will conquer Peace Valley without question and all get endless spoils on top of it."

"Sounds like the best way for us to do it to me, fearless leader!" an assassin told him. "So, how long do you think Tigress has been affected by this? Is now the time for us to go, or is it best to wait?" "Allow me to check with my sorcery powers…" Cu-Hun replied as he put his black magic to use to find out about the answer to his assassin's question. He very quickly realized Tigress was getting rapidly closer to the end of this, though a lot was still gonna happen, but even so, and he said: "Now would be the perfect time for us to go! She is, in fact, approaching the stage where she's truly beyond reach! So it would be best we took off now for maximum impact of victory and to cause her and her friends, not to mention the whole Peace Valley, maximum pain!"

"Hey, we aren't arguing with that!" said another assassin. "Especially since we'll get to make the others pay for taking down our pals in our last fight!" "Then let's go!" Cu-Hun said. "The sooner we get there, the greater a result of the sort described we'll get!" So all of his assassins who still lived gathered around him, and he used a teleportation spell to get them exactly where Tigress currently was. Speaking of that, let's get to the part I know you've been REALLY suspense-laden about. Namely, Tigress's next explosive power burst.

As seen before, Tigress now had a black alien symbiote with white eyes and a giant white spider on the chest go all over her body from head to toe, and a green power ring was on her right index finger. She could not stop a thing as the ring created all kinds of horrible monstrosities and engines of destruction which tore across this region of the valley, and also many killer weapons which immediately went off. She couldn't stop a thing when the alien symbiote twisted itself in so many ways and invariably attacked innocent villagers, and also sprayed webbing almost everywhere, either!

"MAKE THIS END!" Tigress cried. "I DON'T WANT TO DESTROY THIS VALLEY! HEEEELP!" Tigress may have been a strong spirited woman, but she still had a breaking point like everyone else, and all this had pushed her way past that breaking point. Yeah, she was the most powerful member of the Furious Five, but this was not only ridiculous, it was outright scary, downright deadly and utterly dangerous in the worst kind of fashion! Especially when the symbiote disappeared off her and so did the ring, only for several batarangs to fly outta her paws and go everywhere, and then for her to yell: "HADOKEN! NO! I DIDN'T SAY THAT! NO! I DEMAND THIS TO STOP!" and for a gigantic blue fireball to fly into the air and cause humongous-ass explosions galore. Tigress's level of lack of control was higher than ever.

"We have to stop her and cure her, but how?" Po screamed. "There's no way to even approach her, let alone do her in or shut off this disaster power explosion she's been afflicted with!" "TIGRESS!" Tai Lung called. "I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! IT'S ME, TAI LUNG! USE YOUR MIND! YOUR SPIRIT! YOUR…" Tigress tried, but it only took a second for her to be unable to and cause an immense explosion of light which was followed by a great many ray blasts of light, which Tai Lung and Po had to duck under while they shielded the others with their arms. "Well, that didn't work!" commented Monkey. "SHUT IT!" Po and Tai Lung yelled at him furiously in unison. "Sorry…" Monkey said quietly.

The past was becoming the present in nearly every way. All the destruction caused by Tai Lung snapping, going nuts and going on his ultra-insane rampage was now returning a ten fold, all of Tigress' lack of control of her strength she previously had was now back with her and magnified by an order of magnitude and everything Shifu feared of her once and also once knew and feared of Tai Lung was right now occurring right before his and everyone else's eyes. And, as if that weren't enough, all of the horrible suffering Tigress went through was returned, only now in a new form for a new reason. But, just as it seemed things could not get any worse, the seven heroes trying to help Tigress heard a familiar voice.

"Yeah, quite a sight to behold, isn't it? But she's about to be lucky compared to you bastards and bitches!" "That voice…" exclaimed Crane. Everyone got up and turned to see that it was, in fact, Cu-Hun and his remaining assassins. "YOU!" Viper exploded, which was very unlike her, but this was way too much of an emergency and something that she was unable to stand. "YOU DID THIS TO TIGRESS, YOU ASSHOLE!" "And look at all the innocent lives you're destroying!" Tai Lung shouted. "Even when I was berserk and crazy, I did not cause this much damage and destruction!" "Glad to know I leave your ass in the dust, Lung!" Cu-Hun cruelly derided him. "By the way, my magical powers tell me you've gotten some warm feelings developed for Tigress and vice-versa. Won't it be just heartbreaking to watch her die, then? Which she will soon." "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Tai Lung roared, but Po grabbed him before he could throw himself at Cu-Hun.

"Tai Lung, the last time we tried to fight him, he crushed and sliced us, and that was when you, me, Shifu and Tigress were facing him all at once! You'll only get yourself made into another one of his victims! I know your reason, and I don't blame you, but we can't make this already hell on earth situation worse!" "Point taken, panda." Tai Lung replied. "But if you could let go of me so that maybe there'd be something we could do to help Tigress and/or take down Cu-Hun, or at least a chance for that…" "Of course." Po said, letting go of him. But then the group of heroes was torn between two powerful obstacles. If they tried to help Tigress, Cu-Hun would destroy them along with his assassins. If they tried to attack Cu-Hun and his assassins, Tigress could die and so could they. It was an impossible spot!

"So, you find yourselves in such a painful position!" Cu-Hun told them. "Serves you right for killing our pals!" snidely remarked one of the assassins. "Which, by the way, you'll pay for! We guarantee it!" another assassin added. Just then, Tigress was seen in the air. Her new light powers propelled her up there after she unleashed them, as they'd given her the power to fly once more. "Ah, looks like she's gotten high again!" Cu-Hun punned, which instilled fury in all seven of the kung-fu heroes. He laughed in their faces and said: "My assassins! Take care of them! I will tend to Tigress. After all, by now, she doubtless is broken worse than a dead stick, at least spiritually, anyway, and just wants to fucking die. So I'll go and speed up the process of what my crystal's curse would do to her anyway and grant her wish! !"

The assassins did not have to be asked twice. Not at all. They took to facing off against the seven kung fu heroes aside from Tigress while Cu-Hun went directly for Tigress herself. While Tigress was throwing her light bolts and flashes around and also making explosions of the stuff, she was also making sharp spikes of bone and many wooden thorns fly out of her body, all of which were raining down everywhere. "Well, Tigress, had a good go with your new powers, eh?" asked Cu-Hun. "How do you like them? How does it feel to be the most powerful being in all of China? !" He then teleported them to the end of a cliff, which was above several tall stone, stalagmite resembling spikes. It was obvious how he meant to see Tigress dead after a long fight.

We will look at Cu-Hun's fight with Tigress, but after we see how the rest of his assassins are dealt with by Tai Lung, Shifu, Po, Viper, Crane, Monkey and Mantis. One of the assassin minions of Cu-Hun said: "We meet again for the second and last time. You got lucky with the others. Now that luck runs out along with your lifespans." "Not a chance, assholes!" Tai Lung snarled. "We nailed half of you jerks before, and that was Tigress had no threatening condition and we thus weren't determined to help her ASAP, nor furiously hateful towards the source of that shit!" "You have no chance against us now!" added Crane. "We'll just see about that." an assassin sneered as they charged at one another.

Soon enough, there was a melee, but it predictably looked to be a pretty damn one sided melee. Because let me tell you, here's how the fight went. Firstly, six assassins were all at once fighting Shifu, one of them going: "The one where it all started! First the snow leopard, then the Furious Five and finally the panda! Sure, all have joined up and all loose ends have been tied up, but now it ends for he who began it!" But Shifu told them: "I'm afraid you couldn't be more wrong. The only ones who it's ending for are the six of you!" He then proceeded to beat them about with his stick, fists, feet and head. Soon enough, all of them had gotten their necks broken and lay down dead. There was also the matter of Viper, Mantis and Monkey, all three of whom were facing assassins galore, much more than their master. And one assassin said: "Before the three of you die, please tell me. How does it feel that your leader is soon going to perish from that crystallization treatment she got? And especially since she's like a sister to you, snake?" "You just signed your own death warrants for sure!" Mantis snapped, and he, Viper and Monkey were on them like stink on shit. All three of them beat about the assassins until all of them lay dead and in pools of blood, and Viper said: "That'll teach you to use personal attacks!" Then Monkey commented: "You did it to us emotionally, so we did it to you physically!" He held up two pairs of balls he'd torn off of his share of assassins he killed during the vicious fight. Viper, again, was normally not like she was now, but much too much was at stake and pissing her off for her to be her usual, kind self.

Now we go to Crane, who was surrounded by several assassins on his own, and then one spoke: "We hear you're the most mature member of the Furious Five, feathers." Another told him: "We wonder if maturity will mean crap when you're facing many of us at once like you are, though?" A third mentioned: "Me, I have to say I have my fucking doubts!" All of them started laughing evilly, but Crane snapped: "Allow me to prove those doubts wrong, then!" He normally was very patient and slow to anger, but in this case, there was too much of an emergency, and the way they were disrespecting him in the midst of it was just too hard an obstacle for his maturity to overcome. Considering Tigress's life was on the line, that was understandable. So Crane flew in and knocked the assassins off their feet, then saying: "So who's laughing now, you good for nothing murderers?" He then dove on down and began beating them up with his wings, feet and bill, until at last all lay dead above him. Although Crane was rather out of breath, he knew he'd won, so he felt good nonetheless.

Finally, we go to the assassins that Po and Tai Lung were facing, who would really get pasted for two reasons. The first was the power level of the two, and the second, well, you'll see it. Anyhow, Po said: "Okay, Tai Lung, we're the two most powerful members of this group, so naturally we get the most of Cu-Hun's assassins to deal with!" "Of course we do, Po!" Tai Lung said. "But they won't stand a chance against even ONE of us, let alone both at once!" "Oh, we won't, will we?" asked an assassin as he threw ninja stars at them. But they dodged and Po ran in and flattened, beat up, crushed and kicked to death half of the bunch he and Tai Lung were facing, undoubtedly the half who meant to attack him. "Yeah, I think you won't." Po replied. But with Tai Lung, things got much more brutal in terms of how he'd fight. Why? Because one of the assassins he was facing said: "Well, the panda destroyed half of us rather well, I admit. But with all your current emotional conflictions from the tiger's current condition, we're willing to bet your otherwise impressive talents will have been cut quite short, yes?" "NEVER." Tai Lung growled. "And you're about to find out just how extreme a degree of never it is."

"Is that a fact?" asked another assassin. "By the way, Cu-Hun gave us implications earlier that you were starting to develop feelings for the bitch who is Tigress, and vice versa. In fact, you two were bound, chances are, to become outright lovebirds eventually." "Shame she had to be so unfortunate as she is now, isn't it?" asked another of Tai Lung's assassin opponents. "Tell us, grey and spotted," a third asked maliciously, "just before you and your group attacked us to protect the so-called Peace Valley and Cu-Hun got her tagged with his magical crystal, thus causing her the deadly derailing which she's currently goddamn going through, did you happen to have been writing any poetry for her prior to the alarm being sounded?" A fourth said the words which ensured Tai Lung would give them his worst and at the same time would also easily seal their fate. "And if so, did you right at the end of it the words 'TILL DEATH DO US PART'?"

From that second forward, Tai Lung was zooming at them and ripping them to shreds once he reached them. He'd completely forgotten about the fact he was redeemed, the fact he'd patched things up with the families of those he killed during his time of being crazy and tragically evil, the fact he was part of the group and the Jade Palace once more now, the fact that he'd become a hero, the fact Shifu loved him once more, the fact he was so powerful, talented and once more admired, plus cured of ever going crazy or evil again. Because right now, after they threw that personal attack his way about Tigress, she who was so horribly cursed right now and who he'd fallen for and(though he wasn't sure of this despite its trueness)vice versa, all he cared about or could think about was causing them as much of an agonizing death as possible. Using everything he had-be it nerve strike, power kick, claw attack, punch flurry, teeth or anything else-he ripped, beat, tore, struck, kicked, head-butted, chewed, bit, tossed, slammed and pummeled these assassins to pieces. To bits. To shreds. To ribbons. To mutilated corpses. By the time Tai Lung was done, he was standing over a mess of meat, blood, broken weapons and spilled organs.

"Tai Lung…" gasped Po, suddenly alerting him back to the state he'd previously been in. "My God…you, like, ruined them…worse than I could ever have hoped to…" Po was starting to turn white, even in his black areas and especially in his white areas. "They insulted Tigress, Po…" was all Tai Lung could possibly bring himself to say, since he'd spent so much energy and fury. Po, realizing what he meant immediately(thankfully for Tai Lung), then said: "Ah, of course. I should have figured. Good thing is, all these assassins are now dead. But there is still the matter of Tigress to consider!" "Dear God, yes!" Tai Lung exclaimed. "We have to see where she is! I pray she's not dead…OH, NO!"

Po and Tai Lung realized that Tigress was now out of sight. As soon as the other five came and Shifu told them: "Tai Lung! Po! It's over for Cu-Hun's minions! We must go and face Cu-Hun himself and rescue Tigress from her conditions! WHAT IN GOD'S NAME? You two…what has gotten you so spooked all of a sudden? We can't have this happen NOW! We have to help Tigress against Cu-Hun!" "But that's just what's got us freaked, master!" Tai Lung told him. "She's out of sight! She could have gone anywhere!" "Then we have to hurry more than ever!" Shifu said. "Oh, of course! How could we have been so foolish?" asked Po. "We can only try and find her, with your sense of smell again, Tai Lung," Crane said, "and pray she hasn't already died!" Tai Lung immediately started sniffing and leading the way, but he snarled at Crane: "Crane, don't even THINK about there being a POSSIBILITY she's dead! She isn't, we will find her, we will destroy Cu-Hun and we will save her. PERIOD! No other way it's happening! No way, no how!"

Viper whispered to Monkey as everyone followed Tai Lung while he tracked down Cu-Hun: "I shudder to think how much Tai Lung's grief will dwarf our own if Tigress does turn out to have died." "You and me both, Viper, though it will be a horrible thing for all of us, and I hope to heaven it doesn't turn out that way as much as you and the rest of us do." We now take an interlude from them and go to the fight I just KNOW you've all been waiting for, rabid for, yelling for and eager for…namely, the final confrontation of Tigress and Cu-Hun!

At the edge of the cliff they were at, it made little difference to Tigress where she was in her kind of condition and position. While Tigress now was having another change in power, this time it being that she was now blasting a special blast out of her hands which turned things to metal, she had nevertheless easily heard Cu-Hun's cruel personal attack at her and, after being teleported here once he said it, shouted: "YOU! CU-HUN! YOU DID THIS TO ME, YOU BASTARD! YOU AND THAT HORRIBLE CRYSTAL OF YOURS MADE ME THIS WAY! MADE ME DESTROY EVERYTHING IN MY PATH! MADE ME VOMIT UP POWERS I COULD NOT POSSIBLY CONTROL OF VARIED SORTS! IF I DIE, I TAKE YOU WITH ME FIRST! YOU RUINED ME! YOU DESTROYED ME! YOU MADE ME ENDANGER INNOCENTS AND MY FRIENDS! YOU OBLITERATED EVERYTHING I AM ABOUT AND STAND FOR! YOU FUCKING DISGRACED ME! NOW I WILL DESTROY YOU BEFORE I AM DESTROYED MYSELF BY ALL OF THIS!" She tried to direct her metal blast powers at Cu-Hun, but Cu-Hun just used a magic spell to reject it and make sure he was unaffected by it.

"Wrong, you stripe-covered slut!" Cu-Hun gloated. "For this is where I speed up your death by killing you before the new powers I gave you do!" Tigress suddenly shrank down to being as small as a gnat, then she grew in size to be five times bigger than Cu-Hun. "JUST TRY IT! I'LL CRUSH YOU ONE WAY OR THE OTHER!" She shrunk down to her normal size and did not change in size again, but she then developed a bow shooter around her wrist and fired many arrows at Cu-Hun. They hit him in the chest and he said: "ARRRRRGGGHHH! That hurts, bitch! I think you need to be cut the fuck down to size!" He tossed several blades at Tigress, who then developed, by chance, the power to repel matter, and she deflected them all, but then she leapt at him and kicked him in the jaw. "NEVER! YOU DIE, AND I DON'T DIE UNTIL I MAKE YOU DIE, BASTARD! YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME AND WHAT YOU MADE ME DO AS A RESULT NOW!"

"UNNNNGHHHH!" Cu-Hun said as blood flew out of his mouth. "Getting HORNY with me, are you, bitch?" He rammed her in the chest with his horns, but though it caused her great agony, she nevertheless withstood it and drove many punches and kicks into him. "THAT WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WILL EVER CONNECT YOUR BODY WITH MINE EXCEPT FOR ME KICKING YOUR ASS, MONSTER!" she roared. Suddenly, a red symbiote formed over her body and she began making killer weapons galore out of it while using it to wale against Cu-Hun. But Cu-Hun fought back by casting a fire and sonics spell on her which made sure it got shredded right off of her, then he kicked Tigress hard. "I'd beg to differ on that, and two billion of those symbiotes couldn't help you against me, especially with your lack of any control whatsoever. Which, ironically, I myself instilled in you!" He drew out a long sword.

He swung it at Tigress while saying: "And now, bitch, I cut you down to size!" But Tigress suddenly grew a magic wand while she dodged to the side of that sword and cast a spell to knock it from his hands. "NOT A CHANCE!" She hit him with several spells, but he asked: "So, you like casting magic spells, do you? Well, so do I, sorcerer assassin that I am, and here's plenty of my own in return!" He threw many spells her way, but she leapt from them as she did a long jump forward and kicked him in the guts. Then she did an uppercut on his chin, but he kicked her, took two spears and slashed at her with them, nailing her each time, landed two punches on her and tossed her to the ground. "OOOWWWWW!" she went. "And if you think that's painful," he said, taking out a many bladed stick club, "wait until you feel what the finishing blow will be like!" But Tigress got up and, despite her horrible, bleeding, gruesome wounds from the blows she'd taken, developed just then the power to drain vitality from anyone she touched along with the ability to fly and create high impact forces, and at last leapt so that she landed right behind him in a summersault.

"IS THAT A FACT, YOU ASSHOLE?" she shouted. "WELL, LET'S SEE YOU BACK UP THAT SUPPOSEDLY FIRM STATEMENT, HUH?" Cu-Hun charged at her, going: "THIS IS WHERE YOUR HEART STOPS BEATING IN MY HAND, BITCH! YOU ARE MINE, AND MY CRYSTAL'S EFFECTS ACT MUCH FASTER NOW THAN THEY WOULD HAVE ORIGINALLY WITH MY HELP OF SPEEDING THEM UP LIKE SO!" He swung his powerful weapon at her, and though he connected the first time, causing her to be cut even more badly than before as well as horribly bludgeoned, Tigress was not killed due to her natural strength, durability and damage soak ability, and she flipped right over his next swing as he said: "What? You still stand? You must have soaked up a lot of that new power I gave you to go with your own! No matter! I will still see you dead, and all your friends come next along with your master, including that snow leopard you seem to be so infatuated with! In the meanwhile, may you spin in turmoil and despair in the Neatherrealm's deepest pits with your whore mother and douchebag father, bitch!"

Well, this just set Tigress off more than ever, if that was possible. Hearing about what he intended to do to all of her friends, plus her master, but especially the Tai Lung who she was once enemies with and yet now was ironically starting to love, and, unknown to her, vice versa, was enough to make her fury skyrocket easily. But insulting her dead parents like that? FORGET IT. This, combined with the aforementioned intentions for her comrades, master and potential lover, made it so that she just didn't bother landing. She was going to finish him off right here and now, no more delays! Kicking him in the chin, she then used her new power to create impacts to shake the ground and make Cu-Hun lose balance, plus drop his weapon in the process. "What the hell?" he said, but then Tigress flew up into the air, then came flying right down at him. After that, she touched his face with both her hands and drained out a considerable portion of his power. "AARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHH!" he screamed. But Tigress did not stop here. Kicking him hard, and having made it so that he flew towards the edge of the cliff much faster than he would have at full power due to draining his vitality, she then flew and picked up his weapon. "What the hell are you doing?" Cu-Hun exclaimed as he saw her flying towards him. "EXACTLY WHAT I WISH I COULD HAVE DONE THE LAST TIME WE FOUGHT, CU-HUN!" thundered Tigress.

"NO!" Cu-Hun yelled. "YOU STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" He fired several death spells of various black magic sorts at her, but Tigress flew in between them and created several high impacts to shake up the edge of cliff he was dangerously close to the end of. Just then, Tai Lung, Shifu, Po, Mantis, Monkey, Crane and Viper showed up, but when they saw what they did, despite being relieved to have found Tigress still alive(especially in the cases of Shifu, Viper and Tai Lung), they froze in shock instantaneously. Meantime, Cu-Hun yelled out: "WHOA…WHOAAA…WHOAAAA…!" as he lost his balance even worse than before, and Tigress created one last impact to hit him hard and a second later whacked him with his own powerful weapon. This sent Cu-Hun falling down off of the cliff, screaming out loud "E-!" as it happened, and his screaming only ceased when he landed on several spikes on his front, making it so he was impaled. Impaled through the chest, stomach, shoulders, hands, neck, face, legs and feet, with all of the spikes going through the front of his body sticking up out of his back, the backs of his shoulders, neck and skull, and the backs of all four of his limbs and appendages. And his crystal flew right away from him thanks to the impact, not stopping sailing through the area until it hit a spike and shattered to pieces, never to be fixed or do anything like it did to Tigress again.

After bleeding out from his impalement, just like the spikes were covered in blood, Cu-Hun died, a victim of his own trap which he meant for Tigress. An irony like nothing else and a painful death like nothing else. While Cu-Hun's corpse lay on those spikes, lots of magic was rejected from his dead body thanks to his dying as well as the impact from his death, and it went everywhere, flying across Peace Valley, undoing every last bit of the damage Tigress was incapable of stopping herself from doing, but also, in the case of one big spell, hitting Tigress hard and powering her up more than ever to the point where she uncontrollably flew up into the air, yelling: "YESSSSS! I HAVE AT LAST KILLED CU-HUN! EVEN IF I MUST DIE NOW, AT LEAST HE IS NO MORE AND NEITHER ARE HIS EVIL WAYS! SO AT LEAST I WILL HAVE DIED A HEROINE TO THE END! WHAAAAAAAT?" But this did not last, for Tigress was suddenly overloading. Hence the last thing that she said. Why? Because this last power-up spell also saw to it that all of the effects of Cu-Hun's crystal were reversed. Which meant that Tigress did not die in any way, but rather, lived and turned completely back to normal.

Back on the ground, Po exclaimed: "Dear God, did you see that? She managed to kill Cu-Hun! And with his own weapon, no less!" "Yes, and there will be cause to celebrate that later, Po!" Shifu reminded him. "But despite how alarming this may have been at first, and despite how great it is Cu-Hun is finally dead, our problems are far from over! We have to help Tigress, if we can even find her in the sky!" Everyone looked about, but then Crane said: "Well, I wish we could find her, but she flew up pretty high and got a pretty big charge out of that magic spell that hit her while those others flew everywhere, whatever it was!" "Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Monkey said. "Won't make it any easier to find where she flew, and we don't even know whether or not the fatal effects have taken place yet." Tai Lung exploded at Monkey: "DON'T YOU EVEN THINK THAT, SIMIAN BOY! TIGRESS HAS NOT DIED AND WE WILL FIND…her?"

Back in the sky, Tigress, realizing what had happened to her, and how she was herself again, thought: "Dear lord…" She would have been relieved and happy to have become her normal self once more and survive after all, but there was one fact preventing that. SHE COULD NOT FLY! When she was her normal self, she could not fly, and now that the rejected spell had cured her of Cu-Hun's crystal and its curse on her, she once more could not fly! And she was many orders of magnitude up in the air! Unsurprisingly, she quickly started to fall and plummet way, way back down to the ground, screaming out loud as she did so: "!" Tai Lung was the first to see her and said: "Oh, my God! That spell must have charged her one last time before making sure she'd return to normal, and now she's falling! I HAVE TO CATCH HER!" "DO IT, TAI LUNG!" Shifu shouted, almost having a heart attack at the thought of Tigress dying like she looked to be about to along with the others. Tai Lung was about to leap up into the air, but he saw Tigress was now so close to the ground thanks to how fast she was falling, she'd hit the ground and die unless he stayed right where he was and caught her.

Thankfully, he not only caught her as soon as he saw she was close enough for him to catch her, but he did so powerfully so that there would be no chance she'd die, hit the ground or even lose consciousness. Tai Lung had saved her, she was alive and conscious and every one of the other kung fu warriors, especially Shifu and Viper, were relieved beyond belief. Tai Lung knelt to the ground, deciding to look Tigress right in the eyes and make sure to calm her down now that it was all over. You know, make her realize she'd survived and was now safe, and that this would never be done to her again. But as the other six surrounded the two and Tai Lung gently got Tigress's face to look at his own, he was shocked at what he saw. Tigress had an extremely un-Tigress-like look on her face. Her eyes were not full of confidence and hard, tough-girl beauty like they usually were, or even joy at finally being free of her curse, plus in Tai Lung's arms and alive now. No, they were looking utterly sad, frightened, broken, tearful and clearly showing something was all too horribly wrong.

You see, all of what she'd been through today had in fact had a horribly devastating impact on Tigress. Getting slashed by that crystal, taking on all these new powers she could not control, causing all the destruction she did and all that happened between the time after that and after she was finally cured from the rejected magic of the dead Cu-Hun. Not to mention the fall that would have killed her if it were not for Tai Lung's catching her. Put that all together with how this was such a harsh, sharp reminder of when she was a cub and could not control herself, thus making it so her childhood was even harsher than it was already from her becoming an orphan, not to mention how she nearly killed many innocents plus her own comrades along with herself without wanting to, and it's not hard to understand why all the pain from her past came right back to her after so long of her keeping her feelings bottled up and suppressing it. The past had become reality to her in the worst way, and although it would take A LOT, and I repeat, A LOT, to even begin to break her powerful, beautiful, strong, heroic spirit. But this was way beyond the boundary even an apparently unbreakable will and spirit like hers could withstand.

All the old pain and wounds surging through her newly reinjured and frightened self, Tigress said to Tai Lung: "Tai Lung…" She was on the verge of tears, which she did her best to fight back. "Tai Lung…hold me close to you…AND NEVER LET GO!" Tai Lung held her to his chest and comforted her as his arms were around her. Tigress cried. She couldn't help herself. She couldn't stop. As she cried into his fur, Tai Lung said: "Tigress, it's okay. You are normal again now. Let it out. You did not deserve any of this, and you will be treated as kindly as you should be for as long as it takes for you to recover. It's going to be okay. It's over. I know you're hurting. Just stay close to me…" He felt his fur wetten with her tears, but he just held on to her. The other stood and allowed her to bury herself into him. She well deserved it after all the horror she'd been through. Tigress just wept. She had a breaking point like everyone else, and though it was not an easy one to reach, she'd been given enough torture so that even her resistance to being broken could not withstand it. No one's could, as a matter of fact. Not against this kind of thing.

The other six just stood silent and thanked God that Tigress was alive. They would have hugged her tightly and thanked heaven that Tigress had lived and gotten back to normal, but right now, Tigress was in no shape for that sort of thing. She'd been through much too much. It was all too evident. However, they all got lucky. None of them intended to go back home anytime soon, especially since not only was Tigress in need of just being still and comforted, but all of them were quite tired after all this, but fortunately for them, a freak chance happenstance made it so they'd go home without having too. Since Tigress was now back to normal again from the magic, her body rejected the spell which had charged her up one last time before turning her back to normal. And the last remnants of the spell made it so that, by chance and freak warping as Tigress' body rejected it, all eight of them got good and teleported back to the Jade Palace. They were safe at home, but at first, not a one of them noticed. It was a very, very long while before anything but silence and Tigress's sad cries of despair and being broken while Tai Lung held her close was about the place. Still, Tai Lung and Tigress felt something warm between one another's bodies and hearts as they were in the position they were in. Something which suggested what they'd secretly felt for a while now and which was burning hotter than ever now, though in a subtle way.

Man, WHAT a chapter, huh? Quite the dramatic, climactic one, you must admit! The final chapter of this story will be shown after this one soon enough, but in the meantime, please rate and review!


	5. Chapter 5

THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT

All right, everybody, this is it! The final chapter of this awesome, powerful, compelling story! I know that, after all that action, you've been itching for the last chapter and specifically for some major league Taigress. So now you get it! The Tai Lung/Tigress love sequence you'll be fully enjoying the same way you've been anticipating it. So I hereby present it to you, the fifth of the five chapters of this story, and thus the final one. This story concludes on the best note it could after the other four. Enjoy, all, especially you Taigress fans.

I own none of the characters. They all belong to Kung Fu Panda. There would be the exception of Cu-Hun, of course, but as you read at the end of the last chapter, he's dead now.

Chapter 5-True Love In True Form

As one might expect, the heroes were now back in the Jade Palace and recovering from all they had gone through. But, for obvious reasons, Tigress in particular. She was utterly drained of all of everything, with the exception of the desire to just be held close and feel safe in Tai Lung's strong, powerful, brawny arms. Which was currently what she was doing. While the others lay in their rooms to cool off, Tai Lung and Tigress were in the same room and embracing atop the same damn bed. It would be some time before they broke the embrace, but when they finally could bring themselves to, they still eyed one another intently.

"Tai Lung…thank you so much for the comfort you've given me. I don't know how long it will take until I'm back to normal…" Tigress told him. "It doesn't matter." Tai Lung replied. "I'm here for you, and vice versa. And no one is charging any crimes against you, for they know all the facts. Even the villagers most frightened by the incident." "Thank God." Tigress sighed. "I also am just as relived as you are that yes, of course, we are here for each other. And, for that matter, always will be…" She looked longingly and soulfully into his eyes, and Tai Lung did not take long to see some kind of vulnerability there. She obviously needed some more love, so he would give it to her, by God. Tai Lung stroked her head and told her, deciding this was exactly the time to reveal to her what he'd been feeling all this time and now felt more than ever, told her every single word of it. Without any hesitation whatsoever.

"Tigress…" "Yes, Tai Lung?" Tigress asked him in response. "There is something I've been wanting to tell you for so long, but have never been able to until now…and I realized it for certain when I was holding you after you fell from the sky, cured of that horrible gem curse…" Tigress suddenly felt a hot sensation in her heart, though she did not show it facially. "Could this be what I've been feeling?" thought Tigress. "Could he possibly be about to say what I think he's about to say, and at a time where he'd mean it most, no less?" And sure enough, the next words out of Tai Lung's mouth were: "Tigress…I've now discovered more than ever that what I've been feeling towards you is true. I felt this once I joined the Jade Palace once more and permanently, and I feel it now, and I will never stop feeling it. I…" He took a quick pause but then finished his sentence. "I love you, Tigress…"

Tigress immediately threw herself around Tai Lung and looked up to the surprised snow leopard of a redeemed villain. She looked directly into his yellow eyes and told him: "And I love you, Tai Lung…I've been feeling this way since you entered, as well, and I feel this way by at least five orders of magnitude now. While I was in your arms, crying into your chest, it was not just from how I felt due to all I'd been through. It was my realizing more than ever before and in the most powerful way my feelings for you, which such circumstances truly brought out. I love you, Tai Lung, and I wish I'd been able to reveal it much sooner…" "It is all right, Tigress…" Tai Lung responded in a gentle whisper. "I love you for you and not for how long you take for anything. Not for your body, though I do think it is a very, very alluring one. Not for what you can do or can't do. For you." "And I love you for you, Tai Lung…" Tigress nodded as she nested her face into the fur of his chest. "We may have been foes once, but those days are done. Now we are the complete opposite, and I'd have it no other way, dear." "Neither would I, honey." Tai Lung answered.

In their rooms, Shifu, Po, Viper, Crane, Monkey and Mantis felt like they should go see how Tai Lung and, especially, Tigress were doing. So they quietly walked to the room to see them, but as soon as they realized the two were both embracing and kissing, they left silently with a small smile, realizing both of them, again, Tigress especially, well deserved this after the feelings they had been having and the horrible stuff everyone, but especially those two, had been through. As for Tai Lung and Tigress, well, they not only cuddled up to one another, but they also kissed far further and also rubbed one another's beautiful, brawny bodies.

Soon enough, they got under the covers and began to hug and press lips to one another even more than before. Neither was denying the fact this love was very real, and that they would be, whatever happened, together forever. The hell Tigress had been through being replaced by this heaven was certainly something she all too eagerly accepted. "Till death do us part, Tai Lung." Tigress told him in a whisper as he held her close to him. "Indeed, Tigress. I will never stop loving you, nor ever let go of you, no matter what." Tai Lung replied, and they held hands.

It was all too clear that Tai Lung and Tigress were to be together forever, and even out from the ashes of the horrible curse Cu-Hun had put upon her, Tigress now was stronger than ever when it came to her spirit, and her love for Tai Lung was even stronger, plus Tai Lung's love for her was just as strong. This was the first night of the rest of their lives, and forever had now begun as of this moment. Officially so, at that. It was not long until they drifted off to sleep with one another, their hearts burning with love and their bodies warmed by being with each other. The dark past was replaced by the bright future, and neither would be anything short of happy for all time.

As for the others in the Jade Palace, all were glad about it, of course, but none so much as Shifu, who thanked the Gods that his first student was finally back where he belonged and had a mate, and that his best female student was now cured of that horrible curse, safe and also with a mate. All was at last right with the world, and he vowed he would never make the sorts of mistakes he did with Tai Lung and Tigress again. Not with Po, not with the rest of the Furious Five, not with any new students of his and certainly not with the fixed Tai Lung and Tigress, especially since they were now in love and with each other eternally. He could finally let go of any and all guilt he felt, and he did.

When Tai Lung and Tigress woke up the next morning, they did not leave the bed for several minutes. Solely because they wanted to savor the amount of time they would be spending in one another's arms and against each other's lovely, loving bodies. This was, at least at this moment, all that mattered to the two newfound feline lovers. Period. End of story.

THE END.

So, how did you all like it? Was that a great ending to a great story or what? Please review, people!

Oh, and just as a bonus, here is the soundtrack for this story.

Chapter 1: My Immortal by Evanescence. Played while Tigress is looking at the picture of her dead parents and weeping about her tragic past.

Chapter 2: Thoughtless by Korn. Played during the battle sequence between Po, Shifu, Tai Lung and the Furious Five and Cu-Hun and all of his assassin minions.

Chapter 3: Going Under by Evanescence. Played during the time Tigress's unwanted, forced powers start to spawn and she begins uncontrollably unleashing hell on the Jade Palace, and then on Peace Valley itself, against her will.

Chapter 4: Behind These Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson. Played at the time that Tigress's curse given superpowers are getting more out of control than they first did, which is saying a lot, and she is up in the air unleashing terror and death against her will.

Chapter 5: Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Elton John. Played, predictably, as Tigress and Tai Lung admit their love to one another and begin embracing, kissing, holding hands, etc.

So, what do you think of such a soundtrack? Pretty cool song and scene selections, huh?


End file.
